Tungsten Carbide: spray metallizing to improve hardness

The advantages of tungsten carbide

What is tungsten carbide?

Tungsten carbide is an inorganic compound belonging to the category of hard metals. It is widely used today in industry to manufacture equipment and consumables and even for certain military applications.

In Swedish, ‘tungsten’ means ‘heavy stone’, precisely to indicate its high specific weight, which is 19 times higher than that of water.

The history of tungsten carbide

Tungsten was first obtained as a chemical element from wolframite in 1781 by a Swedish scientist named C.W. Scheele.

This explains why tungsten is also called wolfram, echoing the name of the primary mineral.

Tungsten carbide was discovered later, in 1926, by Krupp steel mills in Germany. This particularly hard and resistant alloy is obtained by combining tungsten and carbon.

With the evolution of processing technologies and advances in the study of alloys, tungsten carbide has become increasingly central in the production of tools since the 1960s.

What are the advantages of tungsten carbide?

Tungsten carbide coating is applied to parts using a metallizing process technically defined as PlasmaCoat® thermal spraying.
Materials coated with tungsten carbide (WC) feature elevated hardness and wear resistance. This type of coating is therefore mainly used on machine parts subject to wear and high temperatures. The coating is used, for example, on rollers to spread films, rollers for hot applications, welding bars, augers, extruders, and in the food industry for hoppers, vibrating trays and weighing parts.

The coating is applied via spray metallizing and can be used on almost all metals to significantly increase service life.

With the thermal spray technology, Argos is able to apply different types of plasma coatings to metal parts.

Argos applies tungsten carbide coatings for third parties, with certification in accordance with the UNI EN ISO 9001:2015 standard for these types of treatments.